Social,economic and political dilemmas of reform in Yugoslavia

All of the communist party‐ruled states of Eastern Europe, from the elder brother of the ‘socialist family’, the Soviet Union, to non‐aligned, sui generis Yugoslavia, are in some degree of economic crisis. Gone are the once loudly trumpeted assurances that the socialist ‘economic formation’ by its very nature — its centrally planned and directed economy, its leadership by a communist party armed with the ‘scientific’ social and economic theory of Marxism‐Leninism and its foundation on the principles of proletarian social justice — excluded the possibility of economic ailments such as sluggish growth rates, inflation, social inequality and unemployment. It is now admitted that precisely these problems currently threaten virtually all communist systems. The principal issue for the political elites in these countries (with the perhaps temporary exception of relatively prosperous East Germany and Czechoslovakia and perennially contrary Romania) is not whether radical reform is necessary, but how to implement the requisite economic, social and quasi‐political reforms without undermining the foundations of ‘socialism’ and of the communist party's domination that they identify with it Yugoslavia is a valuable test case of the general project of reform in communist systems, since it consciously undertook to dismantle the of Stalinist system it had been establishing under Soviet tutelage at the end of World War II in response to Stalin's ostracism of Tito in June 1948. From its inception the Yugoslav reform process was informed by a commitment to return to the sources of Marxian social and economic theory in order to build an authentic socialist system untrammeled by the structures and immoral practices of Stalinist ‘etatism’. Worker self‐management, ‘market socialism’, the decentralisation of political and economic decision‐making, periodic rotation in office, and a number of other formally democratic, participatory socio‐political processes, most of which Gorbachev and his supporters have been discussing under the rubric of perestroika, glasnost’ and demokratizatsiia, have all been tried in one form or another in Yugoslavia during the past four decades.     

REVIEW

Girmitiyas: The Origins of the Fiji Indians . Brij Lal . Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History. 1983. Pp. viii + 152. Price: $A9.75.     

Neutron activation analysis of stone from the Chadron Formation and a Clovis Site on the Great Plains

Cryptocrystalline silicates from the Chadron Formation were widely used by prehistoric human groups in the Great Plains of North America. There are two documented quarry areas: Flattop Butte in Colorado and the White River Badlands of South Dakota. Cryptocrystalline silicates from these sources are visually indistinguishable, making it difficult to determine the sources of artefacts found at archaeological sites. In this investigation, neutron activation analysis is used to distinguish the two sources. This technique also identifies lithic material from the Clovis-age Eckles site in Kansas as being from Flattop Butte.     

LITERATURE REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article:
A. Comments
B. Book Notes
Abney, Glenn and Thomas P Lauth The Politics of State and City Administration
Adams, William J and Christran Stoffaes, (eds) French Industrial Policy
Binkin, Martin, Military Technology and Defense Manpower
Elazar, aniel J Cities of the Prairie Revisited The Closing of the Metropolitan Frontier
Ginsberg, Benjamin The Captive Public How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power
Heath, Robert L and Richard Alan Nelson Issues Management Corporate Public Policymaking in an Information Society
Hunt, Morton Profiles of Social Research The Scientific Study of Human Interactions
Kaplan, Marshall and Peggy Cuciti (eds) The Great Society and itsLegacy wenty Years of U S Social Policy
Katz, Michael B In the Shadow of the Poorhouse A Social History of Welfare in America
Katzmann, Robert A. Institutional Disability The Sage of Transporation Policy for the Disabled
Liroff, Richard A Reformaing Air Pollution Regulation The Toil Trouble of EPA's Bubble
Lowi, Theodore J The Personal President Power Invested Promise Unflfilled
Mead, Walter J, Asbjorn Moseidjord, Dennis D Muraoka, and Philip E Sorenson Offshore Lands. Oil and Gas Leasing and Conservation on th Outer Continental Shelf
Muskie, Edmund, Kenneth Rush, and Kenneth W Thompson The President, the Congress and Foreign Policy
Openshaw, Stan Nuclear Power. Siting and Safety
Peters, B Guy American Public Policy Promise and Performance
Rosentraub, Mark S, (ed) Urban Policy Problems Federal Policy and Institutional Change
Story, Dale Industry, the State, and Public Policy in Mexico
Taylor, Ralph B, (ed) Urban Neighborhoods Research and Policy
Wesson, Robert and Heraldo Munoz, (eds) Latin American Views of U S Policy
Winston, Brian isunderstanding Media
Zurcher, Louis A, Milton L Boykin, and Hardy L Merritt Citizen Sailors in a Changing Society Policy Issues for Manning the United StatesNaval Reserve